What's the deal with scaleless snakes?

jjhill001 · 09-08-17, 10:19 AM

I'm not a big morph guy but I can appreciate a few, especially those that originated in the wild and not from rampant inbreeding.

What the heck is the interest in these scaleless snakes? They look disabled/deformed if that makes any sense.

Do they have any difficulty in living that way?

Thanks for the answers.

Scubadiver59 · 09-08-17, 10:23 AM

There were a few other discussions in other threads about this...this is one:

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/gener...ss-snakes.html

Just go to the search function and query "scaleless" to see just how many times this has been touched upon.

**Aaron_S** · 09-08-17, 10:43 AM

I have a friend with scaleless corns. Not gonna lie, they are pretty neat.

Scubadiver59 · 09-08-17, 11:06 AM

one word...fugly!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

I have a friend with scaleless corns. Not gonna lie, they are pretty neat.

TRD · 09-08-17, 11:32 AM

Don't like them personally. It feels like what we did to dogs is being applied to snakes, eventually we will create separate "races" of snakes. We take the deformities arised from excessive inbreeding and plain old genetic accidents and start purifying them. We already have morphs with significant problems caused by humans and their curious passion to create something different.

dannybgoode · 09-08-17, 12:07 PM

And don't forget eyeless snakes are now a thing of some commercial value. Skinless frogs also (of course they are not entirely skinless but appear to be missing the outer layer).

To me breeding intentional deformities is wrong on a number of levels and people clearly don't know when to stop.

SerpentineDream · 09-08-17, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

And don't forget eyeless snakes are now a thing of some commercial value. Skinless frogs also (of course they are not entirely skinless but appear to be missing the outer layer).

To me breeding intentional deformities is wrong on a number of levels and people clearly don't know when to stop.

There's a market for eyeless snakes and "skinless" frogs?!

What is wrong with people? That's just sick.

TRD · 09-08-17, 12:48 PM

Yea I saw those eyeless snakes... pathetic that there is actually a market for them to start with. But whatever that particular breeder does, I hope he has a meeting with the karmabus one fine day.

**Minkness** · 09-08-17, 01:57 PM

Just throwing this out there, but scaleless snakes HAVE actually been found in the wild. One guy on this very forum found a juvie (not a baby) scaleless garter snake in the woods.

I personally appreciate the consideration taken to hybrid and mutate genetics as it is another way to learn about the world we live in. Curiosity isn't a bad thing. What's bad is when it affects the animal in a negative way. Like English bull dogs and their problems...those are BAD. It affects their every day life in a painful uncomfortable way that leads to ridiculously short life spans.

That being said, research has shown that the lack of scales on snakes does not show any negative affects. They have looked into such things as moisture retention, UV exposure, mobility, ect and have found that the animal is not impacted by any of those things (and more) by the lacking of their scales.

No, I do not have medical journals on file to share regarding this research, but I am sure you can find the same information in Google it talking to the people who actually breed these animals.

That all said, I rather like the feel of the scaleless snakes as I am a tactile person and appreciate the different feel and textures if different animals.

dannybgoode · 09-09-17, 01:45 AM

@mink - breeders, who have a strong financial interest in moving on these abominations, would be the very last people on earth I'd ask to justify their creating these animals. If there's a scientific paper on the subject I'm all ears. Breeder anecdotes are out.

Snakes have been around for 100,000's, even millions of years. There are thousands of snake species/sub species covering just about every land and sea mass on earth.

If being scaleless was a 'desirable' genetic trait then it is almost certain that a scaleless species - at least one species - would have evolved by now.

There are very very few adult scaleless snakes ever found and this alone suggests that they do not do well in the wild - the fact the garter was a juvenile is telling and it's very unlikely it would have survived into adulthood.

@serpentine - a certain breeder with the initials BB has started touting them.

SerpentineDream · 09-09-17, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

@serpentine - a certain breeder with the initials BB has started touting them.

Sigh. I should have known.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

**Aaron_S** · 09-12-17, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

@mink - breeders, who have a strong financial interest in moving on these abominations, would be the very last people on earth I'd ask to justify their creating these animals. If there's a scientific paper on the subject I'm all ears. Breeder anecdotes are out.

Snakes have been around for 100,000's, even millions of years. There are thousands of snake species/sub species covering just about every land and sea mass on earth.

If being scaleless was a 'desirable' genetic trait then it is almost certain that a scaleless species - at least one species - would have evolved by now.

There are very very few adult scaleless snakes ever found and this alone suggests that they do not do well in the wild - the fact the garter was a juvenile is telling and it's very unlikely it would have survived into adulthood.

@serpentine - a certain breeder with the initials BB has started touting them.

1. There have been so many scaleless animals found in the wild. Texas rat snakes, corn snakes, burmese pythons, garter snakes, death adders and I'm sure there's more. These were all generally adults found. There's probably more out there we just haven't seen/found. I personally won't have them but I have come around to see what others see in them.

2. What are you talking about that Brian has been "touting" eyeless snakes and breeds for them? Have you actually watched his videos highlighting his eyeless snake? Most people see something and jump to the conclusions on this guy. He had some random genetic deformities come up in the clutch (shark mouth and 1 eyed snakes and 1 snake without any eyes.) He admits he think he messed up in the pairing of his animals. He goes on to talk about what happens with these animals and he says they keep them around and hopefully they establish themselves and if they do he finds them forever PET homes (doesn't sell them) with a strong encouragement to not breed the animals.

I know he's made mistakes in the past and he isn't well like but you have to call the good with the bad and in my books him not destroying the animals and giving them a chance at a life is good.

**Andy_G** · 09-12-17, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

1. There have been so many scaleless animals found in the wild. Texas rat snakes, corn snakes, burmese pythons, garter snakes, death adders and I'm sure there's more. These were all generally adults found. There's probably more out there we just haven't seen/found. I personally won't have them but I have come around to see what others see in them.

2. What are you talking about that Brian has been "touting" eyeless snakes and breeds for them? Have you actually watched his videos highlighting his eyeless snake? Most people see something and jump to the conclusions on this guy. He had some random genetic deformities come up in the clutch (shark mouth and 1 eyed snakes and 1 snake without any eyes.) He admits he think he messed up in the pairing of his animals. He goes on to talk about what happens with these animals and he says they keep them around and hopefully they establish themselves and if they do he finds them forever PET homes (doesn't sell them) with a strong encouragement to not breed the animals.

I know he's made mistakes in the past and he isn't well like but you have to call the good with the bad and in my books him not destroying the animals and giving them a chance at a life is good.

Yeah...there's a lot that Brian does that I can't agree with, but sometimes the accusations that get thrown around are ridiculous and purely false. Yet another witch hunt.

scales.jp · 09-09-17, 03:07 AM

I don't get it at all. Why would any reptile enthusiast want a scaleless animal? Apart from the ethical (or rather unethical) side of it, aren't the scales ones of the main attractions to our cold-blooded companions?

RAD House · 09-09-17, 09:25 AM

I don't like the way scaleless snakes look, a bit too phallic for my taste. There are plenty of people who do and more power to them. I think we need to realize there is a very distinct difference between wild animals and those we keep in captivity. In most cases the two should not mix for many reasons. I agree that we should not breed for genes that negatively effect an animal, but as mink pointed out that may not be the case for scaleless animals.

As for eyeless snakes, I totally get the fascination. By all accounts they act as normal snakes, at least in ball pythons. This is due to the fact that they can make up for true vision via their heat pits. I think eyeless snakes just display how incredible this ability is. I would love to have one in my collection, but I do not think people should breed for this trait. To my knowledge there is not anyone who is, but these animals just pop up randomly. I see no issue with finding these very slightly disabled animals homes, and certainly don't think they should be culled.